Between 1981 and 1983 I worked in a warehouse (Sweetheart Cup Corp. in Chicago) driving an electric forklift moving product from production lines to the warehouse & onto shipping platforms. In an 8 hour shift, I'd have to get the battery changed out two, often three times. That was 15 minutes of downtime everytime the battery had to be swapped. On an 8 hour shift, that could've easily been 45+ minutes of time wasted.
Your point's 100% valid except for one small correction: a fully charged battery in an electric forklift can lift as much as a propane forklift. The battery adds an awful lot of weight to the vehicle. The problem of electric vs. propane is actual run-time, that's where propane excels.
I don't disagree with you, but the old electrics could only do a twenty foot lift at weight to 20 feet height 1 0r 2 time before recharging..